Rose Bowl Game

As they walked around Wrigley Field and an Illinois-oriented bar for an alumni event last weekend, athletic director Josh Whitman said fans would often stop coach Lovie Smith.

"The reality is he's one of the more recognizable figures in football," Whitman said of the former Bears coach.

Another reality is those fans can't expect a quick turnaround, a fact Whitman and Smith acknowledged Monday at Big Ten media days in Chicago. A 3-9 record in Smith's first season served as a loud reminder that improvement at Illinois is a long-term project.

"It's Year 2 for (fans) also," Smith said. "They knew it's not just about, 'Hey, we're going to the Rose...

Related "Rose Bowl Game" Articles

As they walked around Wrigley Field and an Illinois-oriented bar for an alumni event last weekend, athletic director Josh Whitman said fans would often stop coach Lovie Smith.
"The reality is he's one of the more recognizable figures in football,"...

The coach who generates the most heat at Big Ten media days might not be the pioneer who took his team to Italy (Jim Harbaugh), the guy with a ridiculous 39-2 mark in regular-season conference games (Urban Meyer) or the one whose team made the Rose Bowl...

Cruising along in his 2005 Chevrolet Impala, Anthony Zettel was about an hour outside of State College when his cellphone rang.
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The league whose commissioner Forbes magazine named the most powerful man in college sports appears so weak at times, it can't bench-press the bar.
Tuesday was one of those times.
The Big Ten announced which players will appear in Chicago for its annual...

The league whose commissioner Forbes magazine named the most powerful man in college sports appears so weak at times, it can't bench-press the bar.
Tuesday was one of those times.
The Big Ten announced which players will appear in Chicago for its annual...

Have to admit, I'm a sucker for a good underdog story, and the one Justin Gibbons is trying to author is a doozy.Here's hoping he makes it happen — again.We profiled Gibbons last fall after he came up with the play of the season for the Aurora...

The college football bowl season will run from Dec. 16 through Jan. 8. Here's the full schedule with times and TV.
All Times Central
Dec. 16 — Celebration Bowl, MEAC vs. SWAC, Atlanta, 11 a.m. (ABC)
Dec. 16 — New Orleans Bowl, Sun Belt vs. C-USA,...

This much we know: The Big Ten will not have a quarterback taken in the first round. Again.
The last one to get plucked in the first round was Penn State’s Kerry Collins. The year, 1995.
What gives? That’s a topic for another day.
For now let’s examine...

The state of West Virginia has major problems.
"We're losing population. We're one of the youngest states in the country that's losing population," State House Speaker Tim Armstead said last year. "We're last in workforce participation. We have one of...

For Northwestern fans here, Saturday afternoon began with a pep rally during which athletic director Jim Phillips hollered: "One question for you and the band: Do you know the way to San Jose?"
The Wildcats could not deliver on Phillips' optimism, but...

Published in Chicago Tribune on March 19, 2017 — Print headline: "Northwestern goes out with a fight in finale of breakthrough season"

A new era announced itself on the Northwestern campus Thursday with a burst of purple and white balloons and cries of "Let's go, Wildcats!" as students, staff and alumni gathered to watch from afar as the men's basketball team played its first game ever...

Forget the history lesson Northwestern basketball was in the midst of living Wednesday. Freshman center Barret Benson had a test to take for his intro-to-economics class.
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Published in Chicago Tribune on March 16, 2017 — Print headline: "NU smart enough to know value of tournament debut"

For the multitude of media members who attended Northwestern — Evanston's Big Ten school — the question of a rooting interest in the NCAA men's basketball tournament has been purely academic since the first go-round in 1939.
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Published in Chicago Tribune on March 16, 2017 — Print headline: "Keeping purple out of priorities, perspectives - For NU alumni in media, neutrality can be challenge"

Setting: A supermarket
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Published in Chicago Tribune on March 16, 2017 — Print headline: "I went to Northwestern. It's March. Let me tell you how this feels."

This was as much a neutral-site game as a Rose Bowl against USC.
Maryland fans stuffed the Verizon Center on Thursday night, holding up signs like "Terps are Fearless" and railing on the officiating crew for every close call that went against them.
...

Nearly an hour had passed, and Sanjay Lumpkin remained in his white No. 34 Northwestern jersey.
"We'll try to keep these jerseys on as far into March as we can," he said.
Years from now, this game won't be remembered so much as a 69-65 loss to Purdue...

Nearly an hour had passed, and Sanjay Lumpkin remained in his white No. 34 Northwestern jersey.
"We'll try to keep these jerseys on as far into March as we can," he said.
Years from now, this game won't be remembered so much as a 69-65 loss to Purdue...

Vince Young still isn't quite ready to call it a career.
The two-time Pro Bowl quarterback has hired agent Leigh Steinberg, who welcomed his new client on Twitter on Wednesday and said Young "has dream of playing more football, being role model."
Young,...